I've never understood the argument that transit won't work as well in Canada because it's big.

It's old-fashioned North American exceptionalism, the belief that the principles that apply everywhere else somehow don't apply here because [insert arbitrary difference].

North Americans don't live an "average" distance from each other, but live clustered together in dense geopolitical agglomerations called cities.

There's no reason aside from political will why North American cities can't be as walkable / cyclable / transitable as European cities - as those North American cities that buck the trend clearly demonstrate.

Portland is dense, walkable, transit friendly and vibrant because its citizens decided a few decades ago to transform its urban land use and transportation patterns.

Watch how the per capita indicators change over time: distance driven, fuel consumption, GHG emissions, distance walked, distance cycled, transit use, etc. More importantly, visit Portland, walk around and take a look at the city, as Jason just did and documented in his recent photo tour: